Author: langlep

So 2020 was going to be my year. The year I got my life sorted after being served redundancy notice from my job in November 2019. The year I ticked off more things from my horsey bucket list. The year I got my mental health back under control and reduced stress in my life. I had a plan. And it was a good one. Then the plan changed dramatically on 2 January. I came off my horse at speed and broke my ankle. Badly. Like all good equestrians, I got back on and rode back to the yard, sorted Buddy out and then drove myself to A&E. That’s where this journey really began... I was sent home from A&E and told to crack on, only to receive a phone call later to say they’d missed a fracture (and a rather serious one at that). Whoops! So fracture clinic on 3 January, surgery on 5 January and home to recover. I started this blog as a way to chart my recover back to the saddle. As I cleared clinics and competitions out of my diary and wondered what the next few months would bring, it's been a safe space for me to say how I'm feeling. The new plan was to get a new job, to keep Buddy is kept ticking over and recover from my injury. Another good plan! I didn't expect a global pandemic, lockdown and all that happened in 2020. This blog has changed over time but it's continued to be my safe space to share the things going on in my life, with Buddy and the cats. Enjoy!

Defeated

Sometimes you just have to admit defeat, head to the sofa and watch a Disney film.

Not my best day. Felt quite low today so lots of tears this morning. Like my body needs to expel more fluids (yes, I am still with snot). I’m frustrated with it all. I know that I get like this when I’m ill. I also know it will pass and I’ll be back to normal service soon.

Nurse Hugo has been very attentive. His purrs are definitely healing. 😍

Remedies

Good news is that this remedy is helping my cold. Bad news is that I still feel crappy. My Mum swears by it. It smells like it could strip varnish. It tastes about the same. But if it works, I’ll keep taking it.

Anyone else have any tried and tested family remedies?! I want this gone… 🤧

Progress

I’m having to post this a day late due to the Facebook outage. What was that about?! Shows you how much we rely on technology huh?

I’m still feeling crappy but managed to get to the yard. Lunged Buddy and gave him a bath as he’s being clipped tomorrow (today even).

I know I’m biased, but he really is a handsome boy. 😍

Sanatorium

So today saw the return of Pip’s Sanatorium as I woke up full of cold and feeling decidedly crappy. Not a clue where it’s come from but it’s not Covid. That would be very unfortunate for me to get it twice.

My plans for showjumping had to be scrapped and I retreated back to bed.

Thankfully the weather was glorious so it was kinda nice to sit in the sunshine. Feeling like I’ve been punched repeatedly in the face right now. Not that I’d know what that feels like. This is what I’d imagine it feels like anyway.

Hoping that more sleep will mean it goes as quickly as it arrives. It’s been ages since I was sick. Still not a fan…

Midnight snacks

I’ve been ‘trialing’ cats sleeping in the bedroom. So far it has been going OK. Hugo is a proper cuddle monster. He loves snuggling up in the small of my back. Dodo is happiest by my feet. Both are pretty good at staying put and have rarely woken me up (unlike Tom and Nero who used to party all night).

Well that was till this morning. At 2:30am I was woken up by a weird crunching noise. You know one of those noises where you’re trying to work out what it is. But your brain is also having a minor panic about what it could be.

Sadly my brain was right. Dodo had brought snacks to bed. 🐭 So there was me clearing a headless small rodent in a half asleep state.

Dodo was very unimpressed that his snack was taken away. And Hugo staged a protest by wailing outside my bedroom door for an hour.

Cats are now banned from the bedroom. Again.

Pondering

I’ve been pondering stuff today. I took a friend and her horse out for a saddle fitting. As I sat in the lorry waiting, I had another chance to reflect on this journey so far. Sometimes we need to look back to see just how far we’ve come. And bloody hell have I come a long way! I’m still here. I’m still smiling. And I’m still doing my best.

Local Flavours

Today I headed to a trade show at the Norfolk Showground to man a stall with Helen for Weddell and Turner.

My legs are aching, my face is aching and I’ve got a sore throat from talking. But I had a bloody brilliant day!

I’m a huge fan of their gingerbread, cakes and sweet treats. Makes it really easy to sell them to others.

Get those steps up

Definitely hit my step target today. I’d racked up 18.5k by 3pm after two ‘walk and talks’. 👏🏻 And avoided the rain showers.

As if that wasn’t enough I had a dressage tonight. It’s probably a good job Buddy and I don’t track our steps. We covered quite a bit. And managed to finish before we lost the light.

All in all a good day.

Boing

My little boy was flying this afternoon. Mostly away from the hedge that clearly had monster in it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

He’s been in this school thousands of times, but every now and then he decides that the far end of the arena is deadly territory.

I’ve been reading a cracking book called ‘Horse Brain, Human Brain’. It’s really helping me get inside his head.

At least today, we jumped all the jumps. In the right order. With impulsion. And a little bit of style. I’ll take that!!